When individuals comprehend text or observe social activity, they organize the material around schemata, e. g., themes, stereotypes, scripts, etc. The proposed research examines how individuals acquire and retain information that is typical versus atypical of central organizing schemata. A popular belief is that typical information is well retained, whereas atypical information is filtered out either at comprehension or during memory retrieval. However, recent studies have confirmed a hypothesis which predicts (a) better recognition memory for atypical than typical information and (b) little or no memory discrimination between very typical information that was presented and that which was not presented. The proposed studies investigate further this hypothesis by examining memory for connected discourse and videotaped activity under conditions that would appear to induce the filtering of atypical information. For example, we will assess how memory is influenced by the rate at which information is presented and the individual's perceived purpose of comprehending the material. The project will also examine different types of acquisition material, including personality descriptions and action sequences. This research should increase our theoretical understanding of how schemata function during comprehension and memory.